Over half of Google employees polled say the web giant shouldn't have fired the engineer behind the controversial memo

Former Google engineer
James Damore's memo on diversity generated lots of controversy.

So too, as it turns out, has the web giant's subsequent decision
to fire him.

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Employees across Silicon Valley are deeply divided about Google's
move, according to a survey conducted on Tuesday and
Wednesdayby Blind, an anonymous corporate chat
app. When Blind asked its users if they thought Google should
have fired Damore, over 4,000 from different companies weighed
in.

Perhaps most pertinently, 441 Google employees responded. Of
them, more than half - 56% to be precise- said they didn't think
it was right for the company to fire Damore.

The former engineer actually had significant support among all
the corporations represented in the survey. But it did vary from
company to company.

At Uber, 64% of employees who participated in the survey thought
Google shouldn't have fired Damore. Employees at Apple and
LinkedIn were nearly evenly split in the poll but leaned slightly
toward approving Google's decision. Meanwhile, 65% of respondents
from Lyft were good with the way it went down.

Damore lost his job Monday after a
firestorm erupted over the weekend when his memo went viral. In
it, Damore accused Google of a left-wing bias, questioned the
effectiveness of its diversity programs, and suggested that
biology, not just sexism, may contribute to the lack of women in
tech and leadership roles.

The divisions over Damore highlighted by Blind's poll reflect
those in the Valley at large. Some in the tech industry support
the basic premises he laid out in his memo. Others don't agree
with his ideas but believe he shouldn't have lost his job for
expressing them.